In search of the Boss’ love

With former teammates questioning his credibility on the first day of Spring Training, Alex Rodriguez may be in for a long 2009, and the Yankees’ Front Office seems to be keeping their slugger at arm’s distance. A-Rod will face the media circus on Tuesday, and the team wants him to be as forthcoming as possible. Meanwhile, Ken Davidoff wonders if George Steinbrenner’s tough love would have helped A-Rod save face. At this point, not even King George at his finest could have saved baseball from itself right now.

I think George is the only one who could get into Arod’s head and tell him that it is the past. I mean he does sign his paychecks.

Akilino Fokyawife

Until MLB reports the other 103 names of those who tested positive A-Rod will be made some type of Victim by the constant media scrutiny. If we are going to win it all this year, A-rod will need every ounce of support the fans and the players can give him.

Mike Pop

Ha.

http://bigbluepinstripes.blogspot.com/ LB

I miss the old “Boss”. Though, I don’t know if anyone can get through to Alex, even Mr. Steinbrenner. Should be an interesting season.

TheLastClown

How exactly do you mean, “get through to Alex?”

http://bigbluepinstripes.blogspot.com/ LB

‘get through to Alex’=making sure all the drama does not get to him upstairs

Rich

I think it’s idiotic for Moyer to pretend that he knows what the Zeitgeist that animates the HoF voters will be in 15 years. If by that time it has been established that a majority of MLB players have used PEDs over the same period of time, and/or that A-Rod can somehow demonstrate that he was PED-free over most of the next nine years yet he continued to produce at a very high level (including playing a key role winning multiple championships), it’s quite possible that A-Rod could be inducted into the HoF.

Granted, A-Rod cheated, but the reason we know that is that his name was selectively leaked by people who have an agenda to a reporter who has an agenda, possibly in violation of his 4th Amendment rights. Consequently, the outrage should be focused more on that violation than on A-Rod’s steroid use.

I’m just glad that Posada has stated that the core of the team, including Jeter, will stand behind A-Rod at any press conference (if he wants them to be there). I also suspect that if Moyer was still A-Rod’s teammate, he would be supportive as well, instead of being willfully blind to the importance of context in viewing the PED era.

Sweet Dick Willie

Consequently, the outrage should be focused more on that violation than on A-Rod’s steroid use.

I can see where you’re coming from, but Alex doing roids is a pretty big story, and the bigger the story, the less important the means of uncovering it become.

I’ll provide an extreme example to illustrate the point.

Let’s say the POTUS was a Russian spy, but the means to uncover that fact involved rape, arson, murder and rape (you said rape twice – I like rape) or any other crime you can think of. It wouldn’t matter because of the magnitude of the story.

I believe that some laws were broken and the guilty party(ies) should ultimately be held accountable, but the fact is that at this point, A-Rod doing steroids is a huge story, and the means to uncover that story are going to take a backseat, at least for a while.

Rich

It is precisely because a MLB baseball player, no matter how great, is not responsible for our national defense and the preservation of the commonweal, that the means do not justify the ends, in stark contrast to the POTUS in your hypothetical.

Granted, it’s a huge story in relative terms to a minority of the population for what are mostly trivial reasons in the grand scheme of life, but the story as currently reported lacks context, which is unfair to A-Rod because it causes the revelation to have an impact that is disproportionate to its intrinsic worth.

Consequently, I think we need to take a step back in order to make a more dispassionate assessment of the costs and benefits of a possible violation of a citizen’s 4th Amendment rights.

With that mind, I think an examination (and perhaps a condemnation) of the means is justified and necessary, because if in fact A-Rod’s rights have been violated, it doesn’t take much of a leap to envision a scenario in which our rights could also be violated on an insufficient constitutional basis, and most of us would have far less resources to defend ourselves against that infringement.

That danger, as I suggested above, is a bigger story than the salaciousness of whether or not A-Rod engaged in the latest incarnation of gamesmanship in MLB’s long history of players going to great lengths in order to gain an edge on the competition.

Sweet Dick Willie

As I said, I agree with you, but because it’s Alex, the story is bigger than the source.

If the one player outed was Miguel Cairo, I think the process would be getting much more attention. It’s unfortunate, and I don’t agree with it, but that’s the way it is.

LiveFromNewYork

I think the Moyers interview is ridiculous. I also don’t know what or why George Steinbrenner would need to “save” baseball. What do you mean by that Ben?

Alex needs to do what Alex does and not mind anyone else. I think the teammates and the Front Office have stood by Alex.

The fact that the other 103 names are still a mystery to us is not a mistake. So long as the other 103 are hidden, the media can go crazy on Arod.

Sweet Dick Willie

At this point, not even King George at his finest could have saved baseball from itself right now.

Well, perhaps he could have used his significant influence to persuade a majority of his fellow owners not to elect that pathetic used car salesman as commissioner. That would have helped.

Drew

Sounds like a job for Kastanza, hey… he helped out Danny Tart.

http://nyyu.blogspot.com Mike @ NYYU

All I know is that the PR firm “A” hired after the opt-out debacle isn’t doing a very good job.